Would Jordan Binnington fix all of the Edmonton Oilers problems?
Sportsnet: David Amber and Nick Kypreos talk about the Edmonton Oilers and some of their issues. Would St. Louis Blues Jordan Binnington solve one of their problems, and can they even make it work?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kypreos: “The word coming out of Edmonton and their dressing room, (David Amber), is like, our issues are well beyond just our goaltender here. And of course, yeah, they’re, they’re a mess defensively, and guys are having underwhelming years, for sure, on that blue line.
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But at this point, there’s a few things they got to fix. But wouldn’t you just start in net right now and just do whatever you can humanly possible to rectify a situation in that and get somebody else?”
Amber: What do you do? That’s the thing, like (Juuse) Saros, and how do you do Saros?”
Kypreos: “(Jordan) Binnington is my, is the guy?”
Amber: “Binnington.”
Kypreos: “Yeah, Binnington. Jordan, because St. Louis is vulnerable. They’re not going to re-sign him to a long-term deal. He wants to play longer. There’s a history, you know, there’s a chemistry with McDavid from Four Nations. He’s considered a gamer. Like, if you’re going to roll the dice on any goalie out there, I think it should be Binnington.”
Amber: “Yeah, you know, it’s funny that when we talk about whether it’s the Leafs or the Oilers with, you know, a chance to change the makeup of their lineup, of the of all the teams of the NHL, the Leafs and the Oilers, to me, are in the toughest spot because they don’t have a lot of draft capital. They don’t have a lot of top-end prospect capital. So then you’re actually having to take players off your current roster to add a goaltender like Billington.”
And I’m just wondering how they get it done. I’m not saying it can’t be done. I’m just wondering how they get it done.”
Kypreos: “Well, you move (Stuart) Skinner’s contract out at, I think, two and a half, if I’m not mistaken, and then you got to, you got to say goodbye to a guy like Adam Henrique‘s at $3 million. And that’ll, that’ll open up room.”
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Amber: “And you think St Louis would do that? They’re going to trade Binnington for…”
Kypreos: “Well, I know. I don’t think that. I think that’s just, the, you may have to move Henrique’s somewhere else, but, but the, the easiest way to kind of free up your cap is around that $3 million range.
Go, look at the guys that are expendable right now. Make, making $3 million around the league. He’s the one guy that I picked out of their lineup. I don’t know if St Louis takes them or you ship them off somewhere else, but that’s, that’s some, some cap freedom right there.
And then there’s, there’s no world where you bring another goalie in, and you keep Skinner, right? It’s just, it’s over. Let the guy go somewhere else. And I think, I think St Louis would be happy to get out of Binnington’s contract again for next year, knowing that there’s a major rebuild, and they’ve got other goalies now that they’re looking at moving forward, I think it’s possible.”
Amber: “That’s interesting. It’s funny. I’ll go back to Tuesday’s game again. You know, Skinner got pulled after allowing four goals in the first period. He made the save. He made the initial save on three of the four goals, and (Evan) Bouchard and (Brett) Kulak, etc, were standing there letting guys get rebounds, you know, getting beat to the positioning. Not getting their stick in the right lanes, and they were, they were, you know, tapping second chance goals.
So, and I’m not, I’m not letting Skinner off the hook by any means, but my point is, I, I do think when you said there’s been a lot of defensive breakdowns, there really have been a lot of defensive breakdowns, and the goaltending has been poor, to say the least.
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But it’s going to take more than Jordan Binnington with how the defense is played in front of Skinner for this to really turn around, in my opinion. But at least, you know, at least with, with a guy like Bennington, maybe there’s that greater level of confidence, essentially.”
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